Young entrepreneurs hone lemonade-making skills

By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press 

The Lemonade Day Fort Hood Area and Copperas Cove Chick-fil-A partnered together to show children and their parents how to make lemonade at the Little Lemon Squeezers event held Saturday morning in the outside dining area of Chick-fil-A.
The event, which started at 9:00 a.m., started with children coloring their own paper aprons and chef’s hats before Courtney Tillman, the marketing director for the Copperas Cove location, showed the guests how Chick-fil-A juices their lemons for their lemonade using a motorized juicer. One case of lemons produces approximately seven quarts of lemon juice, Tillman shared. 
The kids were then given a plastic manual juicer, lemons and a cup to pour the lemon juice into. Some of the kids juiced their lemons vigorously while others chose to be gentler. After they got all the lemon juice and filled up their cup, they were then taught the recipe to Chick-fil-A’s famous lemonade, which is made of just lemon juice, sugar and water. Once the kids had made Chick-fil-A’s version of lemonade, they were given the option to add strawberries, blueberries and mint leaves to personalize the drink to their liking. 
Lemonade Day Fort Hood Area staff were on hand to register kids for Lemonade Day and spread the word on upcoming events. 
Amanda Sequeira, Lemonade Day Fort Hood Area city director, said she thought Chick-fil-A did an amazing job with the event, “pulling out all of the stops” to support Lemonade Day. The event, which was held at three different locations in Copperas Cove, Killeen and Harker Heights, served as a way to get kids excited about Lemonade Day and thinking about their own lemonade recipes, Sequeira said. 
Nearly 1,000 kids have already signed up for Lemonade Day, which is the first weekend in May. A lot of those signups were actually through teacher registrations, with teachers registering their classrooms to participate during the school day, according to Sequeira. The components of Lemonade Day tie in and reinforce the TEKS skills that are already being addressed in the classroom, she added. 
Lemonade Day also helps kids learn about finances and how to be an entrepreneur, which is something Chick-fil-A is interested in as well, especially considering each Chick-fil-A restaurant is individually owned and operated, Tillman said. 
Lemonade is one of the restaurant chain’s biggest selling items, so having an opportunity to share how it is made is fun, she added. 
Tillman also explained that the restaurant, which also provides backstage tours, enjoys having the opportunity to show the process behind their product and show that safety is a key factor as well as showing that everything is done as naturally as possible. 
Adrian Atkinson was at the event with her sons, Malikai, 9, and Raidyn, 7, who had their own lemonade stand in front of Walmart last year. Atkinson said that they joined sort of last minute last year but planned on experiencing everything this year- including this Little Lemon Squeezers event- to have a more cohesive experience. She added that they weren’t sure where they were going to set up their stand this year. 
Malikai loved the experience last year and really enjoyed being an entrepreneur and having his own business, Atkinson said. 
Both of her sons enjoyed squeezing the lemons by hand and making their own lemonade. 
She praised the idea of the Lemonade Day, calling it awesome. 
“I think it gives them the idea to give them the opportunity to just see what business is like and to make their own business plan that benefits them because they know that they’re going to donate part of the money, and then they get a portion of it to keep,” Atkinson said. “Plus they also are learning the process it takes to make a business and have that experience and knowledge and hands on in the whole process. It’s not as easy as it looks.”
Atkinson added that she was glad that her family was a part of it and that she hoped to help spread the word to other families about what Lemonade Day is. 
Derek Siddoway’s daughters Leila, 6, and Katelynn, 4, were also happy squeezing their lemons and making lemonade. Leila participated in Lemonade Day last year with a stand at Jersey Mike’s and Katelynn will be joining her this year. Siddoway shared that Leila enjoyed giving away the money she earned more than keeping it to buy toys. 
Siddoway said he thought the idea of Lemonade Day was good because it teaches kids that they can be independent and do things for themselves rather than being dependent on other people. 
Registration for Lemonade Day is open and available online at forthood.lemonadeday.org. 
Lemonade Day is May 5-6, 2018.